TELL-TALE SHIRT: According to data gathered by Under Armour's E39 Biometric Shirt some American Football League hopefuls reach 3.9Gs of acceleration when they play. Sensors in the shirts measure heart and breathing rates and skin-surface temperature, while a triaxial accelerometer measures force and direction. The shirt, with 2Gb of storage and a CPU, uses Bluetooth to communicate. Does Bluetooth reach the length of a football field? More at the NFL and video on YouTube.
MINI MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines always seem to be huge things that a person slides into. But a $200 microNMR device is about the size of a landline phone and diagnoses cancer. Medical staff add a speck of tissue from a patient to the machine. In less than an hour the device sends a diagnosis to a smartphone. Tests so far show the diagnosis is around 96% accurate. Cheap, portable, powerful. More at Medgadget.
WATCH MA, NO WIRES: Fujitsu's new 22-inch working prototype computer monitor doesn't need any wires at all. Stand the display on a desk fitted with a magnetic induction transmitter and it can power on. Wireless USB from a computer up to 10 metres away handles the display side of things. They plan to have the monitor in production within the next year. So if they can do it for a computer monitor, can they do it for TVs too? More at Fujitsu and video on YouTube.
LOOK MA, NO PARACHUTE: Skydiving's a dangerous activity, especially when you're just learning. The RAF have spent half a million pounds on a virtual training set where 8 people train together without actually leaving the ground. VR goggles show them a realistic virtual jump, while all their actions are recorded, watched and assessed using a control computer. He's not dead, Jim. More at the BBC.
METAL, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT: Plastic is easy to mould into shape, but steel is strong, and never the twain shall meet. Till now. Yale scientists have created a new class of bulk metallic glasses - alloys of metals that are stronger than steel but can be moulded like plastic. The team has moulded complex shapes such as seamless metallic bottles, watch cases and biomedical implants in less than a minute. Uh oh, have they just paved the way for blister packs that will be not just hard but impossible to open? Details at Yale.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
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